Public Defender Jeff Adachi meets with Supervisor Norman Yee before a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 to consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit within Adachi's office to defend immigrants in deportation cases. less

Public Defender Jeff Adachi meets with Supervisor Norman Yee before a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 to consider appropriating ... more

Committee chairwoman Supervisor Malia Cohen speaks privately with Public Defender Jeff Adachi before a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 to consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit within Adachi's office to defend immigrants in deportation cases. less

Committee chairwoman Supervisor Malia Cohen speaks privately with Public Defender Jeff Adachi before a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, ... more

Public Defender Jeff Adachi speaks at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 which will consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit within Adachi's office to defend immigrants in deportation cases. less

Public Defender Jeff Adachi speaks at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 which will consider appropriating funds to establish a ... more

Supervisor Sandra Fewer attends a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 to consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit within the public defender's office to defend immigrants in deportation cases. less

Supervisor Sandra Fewer attends a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 to consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit ... more

Public Defender Jeff Adachi speaks at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 which will consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit within Adachi's office to defend immigrants in deportation cases. less

Public Defender Jeff Adachi speaks at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 which will consider appropriating funds to establish a ... more

Ande Stone (center), the director of advocacy for Pangea Legal Services, stands in a long line of people waiting to speak during the public commentary session at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 to consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit within the public defender's office to defend immigrants in deportation cases. less

Ande Stone (center), the director of advocacy for Pangea Legal Services, stands in a long line of people waiting to speak during the public commentary session at a meeting of the Budget and Finance ... more

Public Defender Jeff Adachi listens to the public commentary session at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 which will consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit within Adachi's office to defend immigrants in deportation cases. less

Public Defender Jeff Adachi listens to the public commentary session at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 which will consider ... more

Public Defender Jeff Adachi greets people waiting in line to speak during the public commentary session at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, March 2, 2017 which will consider appropriating funds to establish a legal unit within Adachi's office to defend immigrants in deportation cases. less

Public Defender Jeff Adachi greets people waiting in line to speak during the public commentary session at a meeting of the Budget and Finance Sub-Committee at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, ... more

It appears the San Francisco public defender’s office will be getting some money to defend unauthorized immigrants already in detention — just not as much as it wanted.

In a compromise reached by the Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee on Thursday that brings to a close months of heated negotiations, Public Defender Jeff Adachi will be able to hire three new attorneys and one paralegal immediately.

Mayor Ed Lee will have the final say on the deal, because when a city department hires more employees than it is budgeted for it must get approval from the mayor’s office. Adachi could pay for the additional staff through June, when the fiscal year ends, using a $238,000 surplus in his budget. Keeping them on would cost around $1 million a year.

Adachi originally sought funding for 10 immigration attorneys, five paralegals and two legal clerks. The deal agreed to Thursday is far below that goal, but still a significant step given that San Francisco’s public defender’s office would become only the third in the country to represent immigrants in deportation proceedings, behind New York City and Alameda County.

Deirdre Hussey, Lee’s spokeswoman, declined to say whether he would support the four new positions. Hussey previously said Lee would be comfortable with Adachi hiring two additional attorneys.

“The mayor is aware of the discussions that took place at Budget and Finance today,” she said. “We all agree that additional legal defense for our immigrant communities will be provided, and the public defender’s office is working within this year’s budget and without supplemental for additional staffing.”

That Lee has final word on the deal frustrated Supervisor Norman Yee, a committee member who helped craft the compromise deal. “I feel really slighted as a legislator,” he said after the hearing. “It’s not his call to influence our decision.”

The dispute over hiring staff in Adachi’s office to defend immigrants has been brewing since November, when then-Supervisor David Campos introduced legislation to give Adachi’s office $2.6 million to represent detained immigrants.

Those who want to see the public defender take a role in representing detained immigrants, including 91 Bay Area community groups that signed a letter in support to the Board of Supervisors, say Lee and the supervisors should put money behind their promises to protect San Francisco’s unauthorized-immigrant community.

Lee has countered that he has put money behind his promises.

After President Trump’s election, Lee allocated about $4.5 million over 18 months to nonprofit groups to defend the roughly 35,000 immigrants in San Francisco courts who are in deportation proceedings but are not detained. That was on top of the $3.8 million that immigration groups already receive annually.

Nonprofit legal groups, however, argued that in addition he should fund the public defender to represent already detained immigrants.

“An agency like the (public defender), that has already led the way in a similar fashion for criminal defendants, has the historical and institutional advantage to be able to successfully roll out such a plan,” said the letter by the 91 community groups.

There are roughly 1,500 detained, immigrants in deportation proceedings in San Francisco immigration court who don’t have attorneys. The mayor’s office estimates that approximately 15 percent of the detained immigrants are from San Francisco; the rest are from counties extending to the Central Valley who are sent to the immigration court in San Francisco.

Representatives from the public defender’s office said Thursday that they would prioritize representing immigrants who live and work in San Francisco.

“I don’t know that we are going to be able to staff courtrooms five days a week ... but we will get a unit going with what we have been given,” said Matt Gonzalez, chief attorney in the public defender’s office.

Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, who spearheaded the legislation to let the public defender hire immigration attorneys, offered tepid praise for the deal.

“I am disheartened that we did not have the needed support to fully fund this immigration legal defense unit in the public defender’s office,” Fewer said in a statement after the hearing. “The final hiring recommendation from the Budget and Finance Committee, for these four positions, is a strong start.”